Jos. A. Bank Clothiers moved a big step closer toward merging with rival Men's Wearhouse, with an announcement Monday that the two men's apparel chains agreed over the weekend to exchange confidential information and evaluate a potential business marriage. Houston-based Men's Wearhouse said the retailers reached an agreement Saturday night, when Hampstead-based Bank gave it a draft merger plan. Men's Wearhouse raised its hostile offer for Bank to $63.50 per share last week, which Bank rejected while agreeing to meet to discuss a higher price.

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers moved a big step closer toward merging with rival Men's Wearhouse, with an announcement Monday that the two men's apparel chains agreed over the weekend to exchange confidential information and evaluate a potential business marriage. Houston-based Men's Wearhouse said the retailers reached an agreement Saturday night, when Hampstead-based Bank gave it a draft merger plan. Men's Wearhouse raised its hostile offer for Bank to $63.50 per share last week, which Bank rejected while agreeing to meet to discuss a higher price.

An article in yesterday's editions contained incorrect information about how former Internal Revenue Service clerk Janeen McClean left her job last year. McClean, who pleaded guilty to a federal charge of disclosing confidential information, resigned from the IRS, according to IRS officials.The Sun regrets the error.A former Internal Revenue Service clerk pleaded guilty yesterday to browsing through confidential tax information on IRS computers and disclosing it to a friend who was curious about the salaries of co-workers.

Hackers who stole confidential information on more than 309,000 current and former students and faculty from computers at the University of Maryland College Park last week had to penetrate multiple layers of security to get at the data, and school officials still don't know exactly how they did it or who they were. The sophisticated attack, which compromised Social Security numbers, birth dates, university ID numbers and other personal information, was a stark reminder of how vulnerable the nation's institutions are. School officials moved quickly to respond to the breach, which apparently took place sometime between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. Tuesday and was discovered by staffers a few hours later.

Smelkinson Sysco Food Services, a Jessup food service company, filed a $6.01 million lawsuit yesterday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore against a competitor and six former employees, alleging unfair competition and theft of secret trade information.The suit alleges that Alliant Foodservice Inc., a Deerfield, Ill.-based company that has a local office within two miles of Smelkinson's Jessup operation, has systematically attempted since November 1995 to use Smelkinson's confidential information and trade secrets, hire its employees and pirate its customers.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Private Investigating, by Steven Kerry Brown (Alpha, 384 pages, $18.95 softcover) Brown, an experienced professional PI, urges that this book really could guide the reader into a career. But its greatest charm -- and I suspect its main utility -- is as a truly entertaining, briskly presented, rundown on how the business is conducted. Or at least how it is done by Brown. One of the 24 topical chapters: "Moving Surveillance: How best to perform one-man and two-man moving surveillances, anticipating your subject's next move, communication between units, and dealing with stoplights."

The case against a U.S. attorney's office secretary who sold information from case files grew out of a broad investigation that has resulted in a flurry of drug indictments and the arrests of four suspects in a 1978 murder, according to court files and federal agents.Patricia Ann Wheeler pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of bribery in federal court in Baltimore, admitting that she sold confidential information from criminal case files to an informant working for the FBI.The informant was helping FBI agents investigate a drug trafficking ring in Maryland.

Aggregate information Information collected by a Web site that is not personally identifiable to you. Includes demographic data, domain names, Internet provider addresses and Web site traffic. Bot A program or Web site that searches several sites for information for the user. Short for "robot," also known as a shopping agent, shopping bot or shopbot. Cookies A block of text placed on your computer's hard drive by a Web site you've visited. It is used to identify you the next time you access the site.

By Arch Parsons and Arch Parsons,Washington Bureau of The Sun | April 16, 1991

WASHINGTON -- The administrator of Georgetown University Law School yesterday defended her policy of seeking racial "diversity" in the classroom, countering a white student's published assertion that the policy has led to admitting blacks who were "far inferior" to whites.The assertions has "caused considerable pain and anger in this community," said Judith Areen, the law school dean.Betsy Levin, executive director of the Association of American Law Schools, said that the student, Timothy Maguire, "really doesn't understand the admissions process."

By John B. O'Donnell and John B. O'Donnell,Washington Bureau of The Sun | November 29, 1994

WASHINGTON -- The Social Security Administration, in a step that experts warn could imperil its computer system and confidential information it holds on virtually every resident of the United States, is considering giving computer access to outsiders for the first time.In what one agency analyst called "a giant step," outside organizations that file applications for disability claimants would get limited access to send them directly into the computer. And, in a separate step, they might also be allowed to seek limited information from the computer.

At Tavon Davis' direction, federal prosecutors say, Isiah Callaway for two years helped orchestrate a scheme to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from banks. So when the 19-year-old got busted, Davis found Callaway a lawyer, who prosecutors allege in court papers alerted Davis when federal prosecutors came calling to see if Callaway would cooperate. Within a week, Callaway was shot to death. Prosecutors announced Tuesday that they have charged Davis, 24, and Bruce Eric Byrd, 26, with Callaway's murder in April, in a case that could bring the death penalty.

A Baltimore City police detective pleaded guilty Tuesday to stealing $10,000 in confidential-informant funds while assigned to a federal drug task force, lying to colleagues and stealing a broken diamond watch during a raid, according to federal prosecutors. Mark J. Lunsford, 40, of Sykesville used an informant's name on drug cases in which he was not involved, then recommended that he be paid bonuses for any arrests and convictions, according to his guilty plea announced by the Maryland U.S. Attorney's office.

WASHINGTON -- First it was the Department of Veterans Affairs. Then, the Internal Revenue Service. Now, the National Institutes of Health is the latest federal agency that failed to encrypt laptop computers containing sensitive private information. The recent theft of a laptop that had medical test results for 2,500 patients in an NIH heart imaging study shows that the government is still not guarding private information, despite new rules, privacy specialists say. "The issue isn't so much with the policy; it's with the policy being followed in practice," said Joy Pritts, a Georgetown University researcher who specializes in health care privacy.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Private Investigating, by Steven Kerry Brown (Alpha, 384 pages, $18.95 softcover) Brown, an experienced professional PI, urges that this book really could guide the reader into a career. But its greatest charm -- and I suspect its main utility -- is as a truly entertaining, briskly presented, rundown on how the business is conducted. Or at least how it is done by Brown. One of the 24 topical chapters: "Moving Surveillance: How best to perform one-man and two-man moving surveillances, anticipating your subject's next move, communication between units, and dealing with stoplights."

Aggregate information Information collected by a Web site that is not personally identifiable to you. Includes demographic data, domain names, Internet provider addresses and Web site traffic. Bot A program or Web site that searches several sites for information for the user. Short for "robot," also known as a shopping agent, shopping bot or shopbot. Cookies A block of text placed on your computer's hard drive by a Web site you've visited. It is used to identify you the next time you access the site.

The future of Owings Mills lies somewhere in a stack of five thick binders that the public isn't allowed to see. This week, the state Mass Transit Administration began to review proposals from developers interested in creating a traditional downtown around the Metro station in one of Baltimore County's fastest-growing communities. The applicants vying to be named master developer of the Owings Mills Town Center project include a partnership led by Cordish Co. of Baltimore; LCOR Inc. of Berwyn, Pa.; and Otis Warren/John Akridge Cos. of Baltimore.

Two Columbia Council members charged with evaluating the job performance of the Columbia Association president have been accused in censure motions of violating a confidentiality agreement, and their ability to perform a "fair" review next month is being questioned. In a draft of the motions, council members Pearl Atkinson-Stewart and Kirk Halpin are accused of providing the "general public" with information from a closed-door meeting in February at which some of Columbia Association President Deborah O. McCarty's travel expenses were reviewed.

SAN FRANCISCO -- A private intelligence network with ties to an American Jewish group and South Africa is under investigation for illegally tapping into police sources and collecting information on the political activities of more than 12,000 people, authorities say.As part of the investigation, San Francisco authorities say they have confiscated files containing personal information on a wide range of political activists, ethnic advocates, writers and...

Two Columbia Council members charged with evaluating the job performance of the Columbia Association president have been accused in censure motions of violating a confidentiality agreement, and their ability to perform a "fair" review next month is being questioned. In a draft of the motions, council members Pearl Atkinson-Stewart and Kirk Halpin are accused of providing the "general public" with information from a closed-door meeting in February at which some of Columbia Association President Deborah O. McCarty's travel expenses were reviewed.